In a destination where it appears time has stopped, Jaeger-LeCoultre ensures the clock steadily marches forward with the launch of the new Polaris collection

If there is one place in the world that you could call the heart of watchmaking, that may just be pretty Vallée de Joux in the Swiss Alps, about an hour’s drive from Geneva. In this valley along Lac de Joux, charming villages look barely touched by time, skiers schuss down gentle hills – and a number of the world’s top watchmakers are focused on some rather complicated work indeed.

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In one of these villages, Le Sentier, grand maison Jaeger-Le Coultre got its start in a farmhouse in 1833, founded by Antoine LeCoultre after inventing a machine to cut watch pinions from steel. This became the first fully formed watch manufacture in Vallée de Joux and eventually spread from the quaint farmhouse to an extension built in 1866 – marked by window-covered facades, a sign of employing a large team of watchmakers, as each one required to work by the natural light of a window.

Connected to these, a vast modern expansion now holds a team of more than 1,000 each day, and the restoration team – where precise work on a single watch can take as long as two years – can still be found in one of the original buildings, adjacent to a small museum of the watchmaker’s history and display of notable pieces and inventions through the years.

Each year, only a lucky few are invited to tour the manufacture, and exploring the site reveals enormous machines making watch parts so minuscule at times they could be mistaken for steel dust, golden cases being buffed to a high polish, countless inner pieces being hand-embellished to perfection, Reverso cases skilfully enamelled by gloved hands and timepieces of high complication being toiled over.

Polaris celebrates its 50th anniversaryIn 1968 the Memovox Polaris, a mechanical-alarm watch for divers, was born. Featuring a three-part case to enhance the sound underwater while remaining waterproof, it was an innovation.

Now, 50 years later, a new collection of Polaris is being released – an ideal companion for the intrepid explorer and sporty traveller. Inspired by the spirit of the original, the five new timepieces include a three-hand automatic, a chronograph and a chronograph world time, as well as two with a stronger vintage aesthetic (the Date and the Memovox).

With distinctive dials, a mixture of finishings on three concentric circles and large hands filled with Super-LumiNova for enhanced light in low-visibility situations, they carry on the original's tradition. Revealing brand-new cases, the result is an elegant sports watch to take its wearer from interacting with giant mantas in the Indian Ocean’s depths to mingling at an evening gala back on land.